I can remember clearly the events of the past 16 hours that put me in this situation, which ended up landing me a seat in front of the most powerful force in the universe. I remember jumping on the grenade that would have killed my entire squad, and I remember smiling to my friend Tyler as I lay bleeding out.

I remember the light that overtook me and the inconceivable amount of time that passed before this being appeared in front of me with a benevolent smile.

Truly fitting for the title of 'God' the man looks like he could be a model, with dark brown fluffy hair, light blue eyes, a chiseled jawline and full lips complimented by clear laughing lines.

I don't swing in the other direction, but you can definitely respect a man with looks as good as these.

I have never really been the talkative type, so I waited for him (who I would later know to be 'God') patiently, not saying a word.

After some amount of time, the man looks like he is trying to remember a distant memory and his having a hard time doing so. His eyebrows are scrunched and his poker face almost forming a frown, it is as if he is trying to recall which fork he used for dinner the week before.

I have no idea how long it has been since he started, the churches always used to say that time passes differently when it comes to God, and I have no sense of time in this white light so I can't exactly make a guess either.

Finally, he smiles brightly and his eyebrows raise happily, it looks like he figured out what was troubling him.

"You have done done well, my child. You have lived your life in a relatively proper way, your karma is very far into the positives. Your final moments especially pleased me, personal sacrifice is a noble thing to do. Let me think of how to handle your soul in the most appropriate way now."

I can't help but blurt out a stupid "Huh?" and I manage to get the young looking man heartily laughing, I can't tell if it is one of humor or one of condescending nature at my stupidity.

But seriously though, I don't remember doing anything very special in my life, I mean sure I went to food pantries and things similar to that when my parents dragged me to church, but I didn't go out of my way to help anyone.

As if reading my thoughts...well...he probably was, the man I assume to be God says

"True, you might not have helped the poor or saved any orphans in such a slight way like giving them a can of beans, but you tremendously affected the lives of a few individuals in a positive way. Had you not stepped in, all of them would have ended up as failures of society or dead by their own hands."

Who, Tyler? Yeah, I did help that kid with some bullies when we were 6 and stayed best friends up until my death. Hell, we even went through the same BUD/s training and got put into the same squad. We did everything together, he was truly my best friend and brother in many ways.

But I can't think of anyone else who I would have had any impact on, Tyler was the only friend I hung out with outside of school.

"Do you remember Jasmine and Carly who lived on your street? They were the twins that moved away when you were 8. They ended up moving to Tennessee, but they never forgot about you or what you did for them. Quite the sweet talker you are, I should take notes on this part"

He says the last part with a playful wink as I try to remember who he's talking about.

Doing the same thing as what the man was doing earlier, I try to remember this Jasmine and Carly and what I did for them.

Struggling to no end, I fuzzily recall a memory of me playing with the figure two girls in the field behind my house, but that's it. I can't remember their voices or faces, nothing pops up.

Seeing me fight my memories, God helps me out a little bit and with a wave of his hand, we are standing above the field that I thought about earlier.

Here I am, in my immature 8 year old body, playing with some decent looking identical blonde twins.

A flood of feelings and memories wash over me and I can think of all the times we got together like this over the years before. They had always been sensitive about other people mistaking them for each other, but I could easily differentiate the two.

If you looked closely into their blue eyes, you could see that Jasmine's eyes were pure crystal blue while Carly's had a slight turquoise color to them, as such I was their only friend who could tell the difference between them, and I suppose I imprinted on them.

I can understand their feelings, even their parents had a hard time with the two of them so I suppose I was something like a savior to them.

The days of playing finally came to an end on the day of the field, that was the day they were moving.

They solemnly told me the week before, but after some consideration I told them that it would be fine if we just played enough for the next 6 years in the remaining week.

With new found happiness, we did exactly that. With special permission from our parents, they slept over at my house for the entire week leading up to their departure, but alas, all good things must come to an end.

And that was why they had such a sad expression on, when the sun eventually started to go down, they had to leave soon. I had already prepared to deal with these sniveling twins the 2nd day of the week of fun.

With the help of my mother and father we made a trip to the jewelry store, I had thought the entire night on the 1st day of what to get them as a parting gift, so I had a general idea of what I wanted.

I pulled out two beautiful gemstone necklaces hidden in two separate cases , in my right pocket was a silver chain with a respectably sized emerald lodged into the centerpiece, in my left was a similar necklace but instead of an emerald there was a bright blue sapphire.

My family was in a well off standing, my father was a truck driver and snow plower in the winter with my mother in the business industry. Their two incomes made my siblings and I's childhood comfortable and healthy but a little bit lonely.

We had each other for that so it wasn't too big of deal.

And with such an income, we had a sizable amount of excess money in which I dipped into to buy my gifts.

As soon as they opened the cases and saw what was inside, they cried loudly and hugged me from either side, the tears they were holding back in an attempt to be strong like me, all poured out en masse.

Apparently, they would never get rid of those necklaces and they refused to date anyone less than me in consideration skills.

"Those girls' lives were drastically changed when you appeared to them, if you hadn't then they would have fallen to drugs and crime to show defiance to their parents. They showed up to your funeral all the way across the world, by the way."

That's pretty cute, I guess they really did remember me. Enough so to show up at my funeral that was probably back in the suburbs of Chicago.

With another snap we reappear in a different scenery, this place I recognize however.

"This is where I defended Tyler, right? Why show me this?"

He smiles warmly before answering

"No matter how many times I watch your interactions with this boy, I can't help but want to re-watch them, but this time I am doing so with you. It's just something I want to do...mortals truly amaze me sometimes."

A whim, huh...this part is pretty embarrassing and cliche to be honest, not something I would have brought up until many years later to poke fun at.

We were at a park district, it was a very wide field with baseball cages, dugouts, a football field and even a skate park.

Currently, it was the end of football practice and everyone on the team was taking off their tiny shoulder pads and such, the coaches had already walked away a while ago.

This was when I was 6, so everyone else was 7. My birthday was late in August, but not so late as to move me down a grade. It wouldn't be a problem in my later years, but right now there was a huge difference in growth.

Along with that difference and my last name of Snow, I was bullied pretty much everyday. I was a pretty mature thinking child, I watched the History and Discovery channel when others would watch cartoons.

I knew that this was just immature teasing so I didn't pay any mind to it, when I ignored them they pushed me, and when they pushed me I would retaliate.

They had long figured out that although they had the strength and height advantage, I still had superior fighting skills. They also figured out that I only fought back when pushed first, so they just kept it at verbal abuse.

All of my life, I had been involved with sports, on a 2 season cycle and 1 all year sport, I was constantly active in swimming, football, and mma.

As my body was still underdeveloped, none of them really had any effect until I was in middle school, but I still knew the basics and techniques of how to fight from my sensei.

The other target in our team was Tyler, he had short brown hair and blue eyes, not as blue as Jasmines but still a nice light color. His last name wasn't something that could be made fun of, but he did have an unusual colic.

At the end of his hair by his forehead on his right side was an abnormal piece of hair that formed a permanent wave curling upwards, no matter how much you tried to push it down or move it, it would come back just as it was before.

Later, it would add to his looks but for now it just looked stupid and the bullies made fun of him for it.

I usually kept to myself, but this time one of them was yanking on his hair painfully while the others had him in a combined full nelson.

So, being the cliche kid I was, I hit the leading kid with a cross and knocked his unsuspecting self out with a strike to the chin. The others, seeing how easily their leader had been knocked out, ran away to snitch on us about how I assaulted the boy.

Tyler was now looking at me with glowing and admiring eyes, he was similar to me in the fact that we didn't talk much, so I just said a few words that I thought would help.

"Your hair is different, but why should it be in a bad way? I think the wave looks cool, I kinda wish I had one myself"

I said those words with an unusually broad smile and I playfully ruffled his colic where the wave was, with that action he was embarrassed but he let me play with his hair a little bit longer before he had to go.

From then on, we talked every day for the rest of my short life, I made it a habit to mess with his colic almost every time we hung out and he got used to it eventually.

I look over at God, who is chuckling sadly and he turns to me as well

"This is something that I never had the opportunity to experience, it's always been lonely at the top. I got bored after a while and created life, sometimes my decision haunts me and sometimes I feel overjoyed that I did it, right now is one of the rare times where I can say I'm proud of my children. Thank you for that, but for now we have to look at one more scene."

That's so sad...i never imagined that someone who can literally have anything he wants could be so lonely...

Another snap of his fingers and another scene, this time I'm in combat gear with an M4 Carbine in my hands. I am in a brown clay hut, with 5 of my battle brothers each shooting out of one of the 3 windows present.

----------------------------------

Justin's Past P.O.V.

The room/building we are in is around 3 meters tall and 15 meters wide, it's pretty spacious and was a shop before shit hit the fan.

Our squad leader is lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, a bullet had ripped through his carotid artery before we even got inside. We dragged him in and laid him down, just in case it wasn't as bad as we thought it was.

With Chief dead I was the highest ranking and took control of the men in the room.

"Grim, Chain, hurry up and kill that fucker on the LMG, we're going to be mincemeat if he keeps going!"

Shouting out various orders to all of the squad I aim through my ACOG scope and pick off a man with an rpg on his shoulder, immediately taking cover again I wait for the gunfire targeting me to stop for a moment before peaking out again in a similar way.

We were utterly surrounded, there were at least 40 insurgents closing in on our position and of the 20 men we came in with only us 5 remained.

At the start of the ambush 7 of them were dead in the first car that got blown up, in the mad scramble over the hill another 5 of us got killed and making a dash to the buildings 3 of us were picked off.

Air support was still 7 minutes away and we were running low on ammo, I only had 1 mag left myself.

The hajis were getting closer and closer despite our efforts, one of them got close enough to chuck in a grenade through the window I was crouched under.

The only other person who saw the projectile was Tyler, and we each made a scramble to get to it before it blew up.

Seeing his intentions, I shoulder checked him out of the way and sent him sprawling onto the ground a few meters away from where the grenade came to a stop.

I was a pretty big guy, at 6'3 and 234 pounds, I was a tank. Most of it muscle, I was by far stronger than Tyler who was 5'9 and around 170 pounds.

I shout out loud enough for everyone to hear me over the crackling sound of gunfire

"GRENADE, HIT THE DECK NOW!"

I jumped onto the baseball sized explosive and hugged it to my chest tightly, hoping to absorb most of the energy myself.

'This is it, this is how I'm going out. I'm really going to die holy shit fuckfuckfuckfucking fuck'

My thoughts were less than coherent at that point as I lay down on the dirt floor for my death.

And soon enough, death happened.

There was a momentary flash of light and heat, but soon after I felt nothing. I lay there with blood everywhere but I can still see whats going on, I guess my vest saved my heart.

Tyler was the first to get up as he runs over to my body shooting someone out of the window in the process.

He flips my body over and finally sees my condition, upon seeing my pitiful state he openly starts sobbing and saying something, but my ears are still ringing and I cant make out what he is saying.

He gets down on his knees to grab my now outstretched hand with both of his, I can't feel anything else in my body but his hands still feel warm, incredibly warm...

I free my hands and try to tell him to let go, but all that comes out is a hoarse croak.

He must have understood and lessens his grip on me, as soon as he does I reach up and twirl my fingers around his weird colic, at the sight of this burly man crying his eyes out with the same colic he has had since childhood, I cant help but smile.

My last sight was off Tyler screaming with tears in his eyes, screaming something.

My vision fades away to the darkness and I can hear a faint voice

"JUSTIN, JUSTIN!!! STAY WITH ME, NO! FUCKKKKK!"

It was Tyler's voice, full of despair and sorrow at the loss of his best friend.

-------------------------------------

Back to present P.O.V

I tear up at the sight, a warm streak of liquid falls down my cheek.

God keeps showing me the rest of the battle, besides myself there were no casualties until the air force came and cleaned house.

I was shipped back to my hometown in Illinois and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for my actions in quickly choosing to give up my own life for the sake of others.

He fast forwards to my funeral where there are hundreds and hundreds of serviceman and civilians alike, the note I left allowed the event to be aired on national television.

I had made a series death notes in the likely event that I was killed in action, it included my will and various letters to family members and close friends.

Tyler was standing on a podium with a sling for his left shoulder, he's standing next to a large picture of myself. I'd say it looks pretty decent, definitely one of my better pictures.

I always had short black hair and grey eyes, they were almost a bright shade of silver, I guess my strain of eyes was extremely rare in humans so I was pretty lucky I guess. They were more gunmetal than dull though.

My face always looked pissed off when I wasn't smiling, a trait I got from my dad, and in this picture I am in a military uniform with my usual straight face.

My looks were slightly above average, I had some light stubble on my chiseled jawline and my chin was a perfect button. My nose and ears were't hideous so they neither took away nor added to my attractiveness. My lips were a medium size and were a shade of light red.

All in all I would rate myself at an 8/10, I had been used as a poster boy for recruitment by the Navy's propaganda agency multiple times now. I guess I could be called a model? No idea.

Anyways, Tyler is standing there looking strong as he reads from the note I gave him that I specifically said NOT to read at my funeral...fuckin asshole. I'll haunt you for this, you know.

"If you're reading this then I've probably died, if I went down in some accident, I want you to burn the letter and not read the rest of this. I died doing what I loved to do, I died protecting the american people and I died in an effort to protect my brothers. I always used to joke around about how I would be killed at a young age, but more often than not, such things do happen in our line of work. I want you to take care of my mother, she needs a new son as her's is gone now. You have been in the family long enough anyways, you're more than perfect for the job. If I died saving your sorry ass then know that it was my decision and if you dare to get PTSD, I will come back from the dead and haunt you until the day you die. My death should be celebrated by remembering the good times and my life, not all that depressing bullshit going on, and on about how I will never be there. Everyone in the service is ready for death and accepted the danger when we got our badges, I am no exception. I left you with all of my firearms, you will appreciate and take care of them better than anyone else. If you ever figure out a way to get rid of that weird hair of yours"

He chokes up at this point and my mother makes her way to the stage to comfort him

"...make sure to let me know ASAP so I can see you without it, I always tried to imagine you with normal and amazing hair like mine"

At the end my mother is holding him in her arms as he tries to fight back the tears, they leave the stage and the rest of the funeral goes on without a hitch.

More embarrassed and angry than sad, God takes us back to the white space and puts on a serious expression saying:

"Your valiant camaraderie has touched me to my core, I've always had a soft spots for soldiers you see. The phrase "God loves the troops" is by no means a false saying. As such, I will reward you for your heroic actions."

Panicking, I quickly respond

"I don't need a reward, I did what I did on a whim, I had no idea what effect my actions would have. Please, just treat my normally"

He bursts out laughing and his eyes only further twinkle, I realize what I just said and know that I just fell into a trap.

"That is exactly why you need to be rewarded, you did not know that there would be any rewards. You just did what you thought was right, as such you will be reincarnated as a race with extreme potential and innate abilities. This new world will include many things you have not seen or experienced before, some of it will bring you joy and others will make your blood boil. In all worlds, this is the same for everyone, just some get more of the anger and suffering than the joy and happiness."

Before I can even object, he snaps his fingers again as he smiles and everything turns dark, I can hear his voice once more as I lose grip on my consciousness.

"Make use of this life, bring pride to me once more with your actions, I will be watching."

And with that, I black out.

(Now that i finally finished typing it, i realize that this this prologue is really long. BUT i wanted to give you guys a good idea of his backstory and personality. I will probably release one or two more chapters today, but in the meantime let me know what you think in the comments! All constructive criticism is welcome and anything that will help my writing will only make the story more enjoyable to read in the future. Thanks for reading!)

(PR = ScientiaPyre)